Pulitzer prize winning journalist Bob Woodward, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal in 1972, says that the October surprise in the run-up to the presidential election could be the death or capture of Osama bin Laden.

Appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live, Woodward was asked by a caller why the U.S. couldn’t utilize its new “secret killing program,”[2] as Woodward had earlier revealed, to capture Osama bin Laden.

Woodward responded, “We’ll see – maybe they can use it on Bin Laden and all of a sudden the September or October surprise is gonna be the apprehension or the death of Bin Laden.

Watch the clip.

The rumored death or capture of Bin Laden is a perennial election cycle story, with the same sentiments being expressed in both 2006 and 2004.

However, such an event would obviously take on landmark significance this time around because the apprehension of Bin Laden would virtually guarantee a victory for John McCain and the Republican party.

It would not be the first time that Bin Laden has popped up at the most convenient time to aid the GOP.

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Days before the 2004 presidential election, a Bin Laden video tape appeared in which the Al-Qaeda leader chided George W. Bush. Bush went on to beat Kerry and both men attributed [3]the result to the influence of the Bin Laden tape.

“I thought it was going to help,” Bush decided. “I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush.”

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Rumors that Bin Laden is already dead have circulated for years.

According to French newspaper Le Figaro, Bin Laden was on a kidney dialysis machine [6]after he had one shipped to his base in Kandahar Afghanistan in 2000. Other accounts suggest he was also suffering from Hepatitis C at the time and had only two years left to live.

Journalists who met Bin Laden before 9/11 later proclaimed their disbelief about the fact that he didn’t appear on video after December 2001 to brag about the fact that he had not been captured. Since that time, every single Bin Laden video tape released has contained vague non-specific messages and in many cases the footage is old and re-hashed. The “new” Bin Laden tape released in July 2007 was being aired for the third time[7], having been shot in October 2001 then broadcast in May 2002 before being aired again in October 2003.

“With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?” wrote the New York Times’[8] Amir Taheri in July 2002.

A very good reason for Osama remaining silent after the end of 2001 would be the fact that he probably died on December 26 of that year, according to a report in the Pakistani Observer[9], which cited a Taliban official as stating that Bin Laden died due to an untreated lung complication and that he had attended his funeral.

In addition, a leaked French secret service memo last year[10] concluded that Bin Laden had died of typhoid poisoning in August 2006. The memo cited Saudi Arabian secret service sources who were convinced that Bin Laden had died in Pakistan.

“The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al-Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs,” states the French memo.

The announcement that Bin Laden has been killed would be very easy to make if the Al-Qaeda leader has already been dead for years, and it’s a card that McCain could play as a last resort if polls indicate he has no chance of beating Barack Obama come November 4th.